


In Vines, Veritas

by EzraTheBlue



Category: Saiyuki
Genre: Inspired by My Hero Academia, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-01
Updated: 2017-11-01
Packaged: 2019-01-27 15:58:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12585424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EzraTheBlue/pseuds/EzraTheBlue
Summary: Gojyo’s been sent in to interrogate his hero team’s most recent arrest, but this time, he’s been sent in to do it with a bottle of wine. After all, the two of them have something to celebrate…





	In Vines, Veritas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [macavitykitsune](https://archiveofourown.org/users/macavitykitsune/gifts).



> Prompted by macavitykitsune, Superhero AU, "in vino veritas." I definitely lifted a few notes from My Hero Academia for the superhero parts, though some of it is my creation. Special thanks to LePetitErik for beta reading!
> 
> Enjoy!

**In Vines, Veritas**

“Talk to him,” Sanzo had said. Demanded, really, and pushed Gojyo past the armed guards outside of the jail cell to make him do it. Nobody even tried to stop this “conversation.” That was kind of how Sanzo rolled, but when you were the world-famous High Monk, police kind of stood out of the way and it was damn hard to tell him not to do something once he'd decided to do it. So, in Gojyo went, a bottle of wine in hand – at Sanzo's suggestion, even, as he'd said when he was giving the orders:

“Talk to him. The two of you have something to celebrate.”

The prisoner was sitting on his bench, hands folded primly on his lap, still wearing the tattered remains of the black-with-emerald pin-striped suit he must have called his supervillain outfit. His pocket square was askew, his (admittedly sharp-looking) fedora was gone but his monocle was still perched on his nose, which was bleeding sluggishly, either from the aftermath of the arrest, the stress of the day, or possibly even an overzealous guard. The black eye was a strong indicator that it was door number three. After all, Gojyo reasoned grimly, it wasn't every day someone got thirty seconds alone with a mass murderer. The prisoner had been staring through the wall, almost meditatively, until Gojyo had pushed the door, but like a carnival automaton with a coin placed in his slot, he sparked to life when Gojyo's boot landed on the floor.

“Ah – Wild Flow, was it? Aspect's roguish playboy?” 

“It was.” Gojyo kept his distance, gripping the neck of the wine bottle tight, but twirling a finger in the general direction of the villain's nose. “You wanna tell me who did that?”

The villain's smile didn't flinch, as if painted on. “I'd rather not, no. There's little point.” He shrugged, sharp shoulders inching past his ears and down. “I couldn't prosecute an abuse case, not when I imagine I'm on a fast track for cryogenic prison.”

Gojyo really didn't want to answer the unspoken question, or maybe it was that the guy hadn't asked, he was just assuming. It was probably just as well; he wasn't wrong, but Sanzo was still investigating. A new supervillain coming out of the damn blue and destroying a building with powers unlike anything Gojyo could describe, killing a thousand without so much as a warning? The guy was a Popsicle in all but relative body temperature, and that was _for now._

“Yeah, well.” Gojyo sniffed a little, shrugging and pacing a few steps back and forth in front of the cell. The prisoner didn't move, though his good eye steadily followed Gojyo's path. “We'd rather weed out the bad cops. Most of the time, we'd prefer our prisoners not get their faces bashed in.” There was no point in lying to the guy, not out loud, anyway. “And you've been arrested, right? Our duty as heroes is to bring you to justice, and you ain't been tried yet, so we ain't supposed to punish you.” 

“Ah. If you're sure.” The prisoner raised an eyebrow, though his smile remained in place. Creepy, Gojyo thought, but at least he was pretending to be friendly. Gojyo hated when Sanzo made him talk to the ones who would prefer to spit on him than talk. He'd gotten spit on enough when he was a kid, thanks Mom, and dry-cleaning the uniform jacket was a bitch. Still, Gojyo jumped when his face shifted, as he adjusted his monocle and leaned forward with interest. “Er, may I ask why you have a bottle of wine?”

Gojyo looked at it as if he'd forgotten he was carrying it, as if he'd never seen it before, then held it out. “My boss told me to take it with me.”

“High Monk did?” The prisoner's smile had shifted a little in the face of his curiosity. 

“We got something to celebrate. Pass me your paper cups, next to the john.” Gojyo motioned to the stack of cups on the cell's sink, and the prisoner, moving with obvious difficulty, hobbled over to pick two up, then passed them to Gojyo through the bars. Gojyo cracked the bottle open, knocking the screw-cap off on the bars (screw it, he wasn't putting that cap back on, he wanted the drink at this point), then poured up for both of them and passed one cup back through.

“Cheers.” The prisoner held the lip of the cup out. Gojyo tapped his cup to it, and they both drank. Gojyo drained his as the prisoner sipped, but as Gojyo refilled his cup, the prisoner settled with cup in and studied him from his side of the room. “What are we celebrating?”

Gojyo grimaced. “You saved my life.”

“Ah. I did.” The prisoner took another sip. “And you, mine.”

“S'my job, right?” Gojyo shrugged. “Put on a brave smile so nobody can tell you're terrified, show everyone that we're gonna protect 'em, save as many lives as we can. I wanted to bring you in alive.” Gojyo slumped into the wall as he drank again. “You had no damn good reason to save me, and you did, and I guess I owe you thanks for that much.”

“Oh.” The prisoner now stared into his cup. “Er, what is your name? Not your hero identity, if you don't mind.”

“It's Gojyo. You?” Gojyo squinted at him. “You didn't bother with the usual grandstanding we see from first-time villains, so--”

“Gonou. Cho Gonou.” The prisoner smiled wryly. “I suppose, if I had to have a pseudonym, I'd go with something like Knot? Yes, perhaps.”

“Knot, is it?” Gojyo swallowed a little, then took another swig of the wine from his cup. “Uh, you know me, my power set--”

“Water control, yes, it's well-known.” Gonou smiled wryly. “Firsthand experience, now. Thrilling. If I had anyone to whom I could tell the tale, it would be an exciting story.”

“Exciting. Right. Like...” Gojyo found himself gesturing wildly with his free hand and gripping the bottle tight in the other. “Like, bringing the house down on a thousand people isn't exciting.”

“It wasn't.” Gonou's chin tipped towards his wine cup. “It was a necessity. I make no excuses for my actions; I took them deliberately, planned them to the last. The only thing I could not plan was which set of heroes would be sent to stop me, only to anticipate them and act without hesitation.”

“See, that's the weird thing.” Gojyo found his tongue a little looser despite being in the presence of someone who’d admitted to _premeditated_ mass murder. “We're having a lot of trouble figuring out why you brought down a science lab.”

Gonou didn't respond, instead swirling his paper cup in his hand. “You're investigating, you said?”

“High Monk is, with some aid from a few colleagues. Shining Shield, for one, and Little Miss Playtime is helping out, and Chimpy Gold is digging up the rubble.”

“Chimpy Gold?” A genuine smile cracked through Gonou's mask for a second. “Do you mean Golden Beast?”

“Yeah, yeah, you work with him for a day, you see he ain't a beast, he's a clown.” Gojyo took his next swig straight from the bottle. “'Til the exact second he gets serious. Then, god damn, the kid shows you exactly what they mean when they say 'super strong,' 'super durable,' and fucking rechargeable.” 

“Rechargeable?”

“It's his holdback. One of the things they don't put in his dossier.” Gojyo blinked stupidly. “Hey, do me a favor and don't tell anyone.”

“Who shall I tell?” Gonou shrugged, hands out, displaying all of the nobodies he had to talk to. “If you mean he can absorb energy, I observed that. I happen to use energy constructs, you may have noticed.” Gonou set his cup aside and turned a hand over, making a thin green line of light, curling like a vine in midair, materialize over his palm. Gojyo choked on the wine in his throat.

“They ain't restrained you!” 

“Ah, I haven't bothered to fight back. I have no intention to.” Gonou turned his hand over, releasing the construct. “My powers include energy manipulation, chiefly. That was how I accomplished my goal.”

“Yeah.” Gojyo paled a little at the thought, the needle-precise holes in the bodies, those bright green lines that crept up around the building and crushed it like a vise clamping around a porcelain vase, or a trap closing on the neck of a mouse. “You just... did it.”

“I had to.” Gonou emptied the wine into his mouth, the dropped the cup in the trash. “It's the only thing I've ever wanted, ever since I had the right to want things again.”

That sounded wrong. Gojyo held the bottle through the bars. “Why do you say you needed to, anyway?”

“Hyaku Corp. had to be stopped, and nobody would listen because I had no proof but my word.” Gonou bit his lip. “I... I've only recently gained full control of my powers. It took some time, after escaping.”

“Escaping,” Gojyo repeated. 

“You'd think I'd want to stay free, but I didn't. I had nowhere else to go or be, and nobody to return to. When we were sold, we clung to each other.” Gonou stared at the floor between his feet, colorful socks ragged and visible through the patches worn in his shoes. “That's the trouble with having children with the expectation that they'll inherit your powers – the disappointment. All that work arranging marriage between two supers whose powers would complement or enhance the other's, engaging in rounds of in vitro fertilization to select the most ideal fetuses, years of waiting for powers to develop only to find they never do, and never will.”

The wine soured in Gojyo's mouth and gut at the thought. He'd heard of supers trying to make their offspring super-soldiers, but the practice was discouraged at best, but hell, his powers had sprung the fuck out of nowhere. His mom had been normal. His dad's powers had been nothing special, enough for a decent crowd-control sidekick career and not much else. Gojyo knew what it was to be a disappointment, though – his big brother's keen accuracy and speed were Mom's pride and joy, and he was just that man's bastard anyway, how could his powers even rival precious Jien's?

“You said children,” Gojyo muttered, shaking his head, “and 'we.' Who was the rest of your 'we?'”

Gonou was quiet, then glanced at his cup. “You're listening to me, I see. Ahaha!” His sudden laugh jarred Gojyo, but Gojyo held firm as Gonou lifted his eyes and held his. “My sister. My twin. Our parents sold us both to Hyaku as test subjects because we were failures.”

“Because you didn't have powers.”

“Failures,” Gonou repeated, then, softer, “We weren't good enough as we were. Hyaku said they would improve us. Fifteen years, we were stuck with needles, forced to take pills, cut and chopped, and run through our paces to see if anything would come of us.” Gonou turned his hand over again, watching the thin lines of green energy twine around his hand and wrist. “And then, we weren't a matched set anymore. My dear sister, heartbroken with despair that I was to be taken from her... She begged Hyaku, one more experiment, one more test...”

Gojyo felt cold, too cold, as the spark seemed to leave Gonou's eyes, as if he'd run out of charge. Gonou stared, still and blank, mouth moving like a doll on dying batteries: “They obliged. It ruined her. She was medical waste. And they merely told me I was lucky.” He caught Gojyo's eye again, holding his gaze with the desperate, scraping sort of look that he must have worn when he thought of the price of that fortune. “Do you have any family, Wild Flow?”

Gojyo maybe wouldn't have answered, but he did anyway: “A half-brother. He used to be a hero, until one of his buddies got involved with a villain group and he followed.” Gojyo knew that scraping feeling too well, because he'd felt it when they'd told him Jien had vanished, as if a layer of his ribcage had been removed by force. That loneliness. Gojyo was too familiar with it now. “I'm sorry you lost her.”

“I am, too.” Gonou's heels were bouncing slightly under the bed, as if he weren't entirely aware he was doing it, and his grip on the cup was quaking. “I wish I had any alternative, but when I attempted to contact the authorities upon escaping their laboratories, I was ignored, dismissed, considered insane. I couldn't let them do to another soul what they did to me.” Gonou tossed back the rest of the cup and dropped it into the wastebasket. “I had a holdback, too. I believe I developed a powerful memory and information retention ability long before my energy manipulation manifested, though I can't pinpoint when and I hid it from everyone, unsure of what would be done to me if I admitted it. I couldn't hide when one of their tests forced me to protect my own life on instinct, but if I kept quiet, they would never realize how intelligent I had become.” He licked his lips, then closed his eyes. “I remembered the face of every individual with whom I interacted while imprisoned under their building, and I ensured that I killed each of them personally. Then, everyone calling himself doctor, every board member, anyone who may have signed any piece of paperwork that put into motion the actions that destroyed my sister. Then, I destroyed the building, and was done with it.”

Gojyo realized something then. “You didn't want me to save you at all, huh?”

Gonou didn't answer for a moment, then let his face form a gentle smile. “That was not in the plan, no.”

Gojyo's spine ached at the thought, and he closed his eyes too. “Then why did you save me?”

“Think, Gojyo. What were you doing when we crossed paths?”

Gojyo couldn't forget. He still thought of it every time he blinked, had ever since it had happened six hours ago.

_“Get the civilians out!” High Monk shouted as he rushed down the hallway, Golden Beast at his heels and his paper shields twirling around them in rapid orbit, blocking chunks of rubble from the crumbling, quaking skyscraper as it fell from the ceiling. There were still patients in the hospital ward, trapped in their beds, whispering and panicking, and Gojyo started as he tried to count them all._

_“Shit, there's a lot – no, I got this!” He grounded his heels and focused, sensing for the nearest source of water. “Yo, Chimpy, get yourself and Princess Priest to higher ground!”_

_Monk sent a piece of his paper shielding flying at Gojyo's head, and he scantly broke focus to duck. “You Princess me one more time and--”_

_“You got it, Wild Flow!” Golden Beast cut High Monk off, and he ushered him off with a flutter of his cape and a whisper of “I hope he uses the hot tap, or those folks are gonna freeze in those paper gowns!”_

_The tap! Gojyo could feel every water spigot in the washrooms vibrating in reaction to his demand, and he forced the pressure to break through, bringing water flooding out. He dragged the water from the pipes in the bathroom and surgical suite sinks around him, and grinned at the patients. “Alright, everyone, it's about to get soggy, but you're going down! Clear a path down the middle!”_

_Gojyo gathered the water around his feet, feeling the current like a sixth sense, like an extension of his own limbs. He'd learned to focus it like a weapon in his hands, and drew it up into a block, solid as steel. Then, he blasted the wall open. The entire building shuddered with the force, but Gojyo knew the structure was coming down anyway, he could feel it shaking under his feet. He gathered the water again, imitating the motions with his arms as it wound up behind him, then released a tidal wave big enough to carry all of them down and out gently. It took iron will to hold the water in place, and intense concentration to keep the surface tension just-so to keep each person securely floating as he carefully lowered them down. He kept his muscles tense as he shifted his weight back, imitating the motion of the wave with his legs and body. He found his eyes slipping shut as he brought his arms down in a slow wheel forward, the visual stimuli too distracting from the water that moved through him like his own blood. The last thing he saw before he closed his eyes was one of the patients, a thin-looking little girl, smiling at him._

_Gojyo only wondered for a second what these people were doing here, because as far as he knew, Hyaku was a tech research company, why would they have human subjects, but then, he heard a crack from above._

_He opened his eyes in time to see the beam swinging towards his face, and a green light in front of him. A man in a black suit with green pinstripes had jumped in front of Gojyo, hands up and blocking one of the ceiling beams from falling , and he glanced back with a little smile._

_“I saw your cargo landed safely. Good show. You should head for the ground floor before the building is crushed.” Vinelike lines, jade-green and luminous, wrapped around the beam and lowered it to the floor, and the man in the suit turned and strolled in the same direction High Monk and Golden Beast had gone. Gojyo exhaled as the vines vanished, and the beam clanked down with the force of a ton._

_He hadn't seen or heard it coming. He would have died. Gojyo had no idea who his hero was – definitely not part of his agency – but he knew he had to thank him…_

“I had rescued some of their patients,” Gojyo muttered aloud. “I would'a been a roach under a boot if that beam had hit me. Those people, they weren't patients at all.”

“You freed fifty people who were in the same boat as I. I would have done it myself had I time, but I entrusted the heroes to that duty.” Gonou had clasped his fingers together tight. “You performed admirably. You saved every single person.”

Gojyo nodded, and found that the wine had made his eyes too bleary and his head too heavy. He couldn't hold his head up to even look at Gonou anymore. “And then you.”

_“Thank you for clearing out of the way.” The man in the striped suit beamed from his position on the steps of the building. Gojyo could only gape as broad green lines wrapped through and around the building. Only now could he see the holes punched in it, precisely sabotaging the structural integrity, with the exception of one squarish hole near the top. High Monk had managed to get them safely down on a stairwell of pages shredded from a Bible (because any book would do, but Bibles came with lots and lots of pages and when he was using them, it didn't matter how thin they were), but even after racing through midair on a spiral of paper, Gojyo's heart had only stopped when he hit bottom and came face to face with his “hero” again. He smiled, bright and cheerful against the ominous green glow of his vines. High Monk stepped forward._

_“What is your goal, asshole? Where's the big speech?”_

_“Oh, goodness.” The man in the suit stifled a soft laugh. “Forgive me; I'm terrified of public speaking. Please, do step back.” He raised a hand, and Gojyo saw the faint green glow around his hand._

_He also saw that when the man in the suit did what he was obviously threatening to do, he would be under the building as it collapsed._

_Gojyo didn't even have to think about it, he was moving before his head had even decided, and he bolted for the steps, gathering the water on the street around him into a shield, then whipping a tendril of it up into a crescent-shaped blade. Gojyo watched the man's hand close, raising his arms over his head to keep the shield overhead, and as the vines around the building closed and crushed the remaining structure completely, as the building fell, Gojyo poured his will into keeping the shield up, and drew his focus into using the pressure of the water blade to slice through the larger chunks of concrete and steel as they plummeted towards them. He felt blood start to drip down from his nose and over his lips, refusing to blink for a second as the chunks of the building piled up around them. He couldn't divert his eyes, though in the very corner of his vision, he could see their villain staring as if he was seeing a ghost risen from the grave._

_When the dust settled, when the building had fallen, when Gojyo's bubble was surrounded and nearly buried in hunks of drywall, concrete, and steel, Gojyo blasted his bubble loose and turned to face the villain. Blood was pouring from his nose now, and though he tried to speak, words and breath failed. Instead, the villain offered him a kerchief from his pocket and asked, “What did you do that for?”_

_Gojyo wiped his nose, then smeared the blood from his hands and seized the villain by the shoulders. “So I could take you in alive, damn it, let's fucking go.”_

“It's like I said,” Gojyo muttered, pinching his brow between his eyes. He sank down against the wall, sitting on the floor with the wine bottle at his feet. “I wanted to take you in alive. I wanted to know why you did it. I wanted to be sure you hadn't left us any other nasty presents.”

“Was that all? I see. How perfectly practical.” Gonou smiled wryly, lips as taut as his laced fingers. “I can appreciate it.”

“Fuck.” Gojyo grimaced. The wine he'd drank was sour in his gut now, making honesty taste all the better: “It doesn't matter who you are, I don't wanna stand back and watch anyone die. I became a hero to do some damn good with my life.” He pounded a fist on the ground. “You could'a done it, too. Yeah, it sucks that you got those powers 'cause of that, but you could'a saved so many people.”

Gonou nodded somberly. “Perhaps, if anyone had saved me first.”

“Fuck you!” Gojyo kicked the bottle at him. It rattled across the floor and hit the bars, but Gonou flinched back from it anyway. “You saved yourself, you fuck! You got out! You were in the shit and you made it through, and if you'd just joined an agency proper, you could'a brought 'em down fair and square instead of bringing the house down! I would'a helped!” He groaned and tugged his hair over his face. “You wanted to do good, I can feel it, you wanted to... you wanted nobody to ever have to hurt like you did again... But how're you gonna do that if you're dead or on ice?” Gonou pursed his lips, and Gojyo concluded, “For a guy with super-intelligence, you're a fucking moron.”

Gonou couldn't quite look at Gojyo anymore. “I appreciate your honesty.”

“Yeah, well, it's all I got for ya.” Gojyo shook his head. “Out of wine.”

Gonou was quiet again, and Gojyo had nothing to say to fill the silence. Instead, a heart-crushing sorrow filled him, enough to nearly bring him to the floor, until Gonou began to laugh. 

“What a shame.” He lifted a mirthful tear from the dark crescent under his eyes. “I think I would have liked working with you, too.”

The cell door opened, and Sanzo, still in his white-and-green uniform, navy sash loose over his gi pants, stuck his head in. “Wild Flow, we're done here. Get your trash and get up.” 

Gonou didn't say another word to Gojyo as he got up and followed Sanzo out. The police guard moved back into place behind them, and Gojyo kept his mouth clamped shut tight as Sanzo escorted him out of the holding station. He waited until they'd gotten into the agency van and shut the door before blurting, “He wasn't lying. Tell me you were fucking listening.”

“Of course I was, dipshit.” Sanzo sneered as he shoved Gojyo into the bench seat. Shining Shield, wearing civvies, dark hair swept back and a cigarette in her mouth, shook her head from the front seat.

“My investigation has told us much the same. Hyaku was dirty. In addition, Aspect Co. was already investigating them.” She gave Gojyo a pointed look. “If Gonou had come to us, the last of the evidence would have been in place.” 

“Fuck.” Gojyo smeared at his face before he realized there were tears running from his eyes now. He tried to hide it, but Sanzo, strapped into the seat facing his, grabbed his chin and looked him in the eyes.

“There's nothing you can do for him. Let it go.” He leaned in. “After debriefing, go get yourself a hooker and get over this.”

“Shut up.” Gojyo jerked his chin away. “I don't need to buy sex, dammit. I can get it if I want it.” He cursed under his breath and tried to shake off the lingering inebriation. “I'm fine. I'll be fine.”

“Hmph.” Sanzo sniffed, nostrils flaring. “I don't believe you, but whatever.” He crossed his arms. “Sharak, let's get back for debriefing.”

“Sure.” She gave Gojyo one last dubious look, then put the car into drive. Gojyo tried to sink back into the sensation of the alcohol, dragging his hair over his face and sucking in air, as if enough oxygen might just drown him.

It's just the wine, he tried to tell himself, you shared a little too much wine with a villain. Still, he closed his eyes and saw those thin hands, those green vines, that wry, sad smile. Those eyes that still wanted to die. It was too much, too honest.

Gojyo hadn't wanted him to die either the first or second time he'd laid eyes on him. Knowing that he was going to die hurt more than Gojyo had ever thought the death of a stranger could. 

Gojyo wasn't smart, but he got people. Sometimes, he even got why Jien went bad. He just would never understand those who wanted their loved ones to have these powers. 

“Being a hero sucks sometimes,” he muttered, and Sanzo just grumbled assent.

“At least you're good at sucking.”

Gojyo flipped Sanzo off, and closed his eyes again. The visual stimuli was too much right now.

\-----------------------------------------

It had been weeks, but every time Gojyo crossed paths with Golden Beast, he would ask him, “Are ya feeling better?” Gojyo was still lying every time when he answered:

“Are you kidding, kid? I get over one-night-stands like that before the condom even dries in the trash can.” He mussed Goku's hair, and Goku pushed him off.

“Quit sayin' gross stuff, jerkoff!” He stuck his tongue out at Gojyo, then lolled a step behind him as they crossed the Aspect HQ quad towards the briefing room. “I'm just being sure, alright?” Goku continued to study him as they walked side-by-side. “You were real down, and you're lookin' like you're pickin' yourself back up, but I know how it is when stuff gets personal, okay?”

“Damn right,” Gojyo snorted. “I've seen you after an overload. Nah, I'm fine.” He shrugged, then pushed and held the door. “I'll be fine.”

“Yeah, I wish I believed you.” Goku shuffled past Gojyo. “Just try and be normal, okay? Wild Monk said we had a new recruit.”

“New recruit?” Gojyo raised an eyebrow, and hurried after Goku into their meeting room. Little Miss Playtime was onscreen, Skyping in from Aspect West's HQ and stringing yarn into one of her voodoo dolls (and damn it was weird, knowing what that lolita-looking Taruchie could do with the things in her toybox, to see her playing with it.), but Shining Shield and her sidekick, Striped Shell, were seated off to the side, Shell cleaning his shotgun (and when you've got hyper-accuracy, even shot pellets could do some serious damage). Goku broke off from Gojyo and bounced over to them.

“Hiya, Sharak, Hassan! I’m surprised you’re still in town!”

“Only for a little longer,” Hassan chuckled. “Sharak and Sanzo were enjoying their last investigation together too much – she knows just how to make me jealous.”

“Don't be ridiculous.” Sharak barely paused in filing her fingernails to glare at Hassan. “Sanzo could never replace you as my sidekick.” She looked back down to her hands and continued filing. “Sanzo would never let himself sink that low.”

Hassan gaped, clearly offended, and Gojyo couldn't help but smirk. He gave them a token wave and took his usual seat near the front – he was an agency lead, he was supposed to show off – and waited for the meeting to start. He wasn't even dreading this one. If a new team member was important enough to have a meeting called about it, this might actually be interesting.

The door opened, and Wild Monk stormed in with Lady Mercy at his heels, her skirts trailing behind her. “Good morning, boys!” She spread her arms in mock embrace and pivoted to face them as she reached the front of the room. “I take it the rumors have been flying?”

“Yeah!” Goku bounced on his heels. “We got a new recruit? Is it a sidekick, or a new lead?”

“New lead,” Sanzo answered, lip curling, “and quit listening to gossip, you damn chimp.” He stood at the front of the room, seeming to deliberately avoid catching Gojyo's eye. “Aspect has needed a fourth lead for some time. We were fortunate that Shining Shield and Playtime were available to assist on our most recent major crisis, but we can't always depend on that. It's time we introduced a new member, someone who can support the team and provide investigative assistance.” He paused, seeming to suck in air. “And the idiot is late.”

“Begging your pardon!” The door flew open, and Gojyo felt a spark run through him as if he'd touched a loose wire on an old electronic carnival automaton. He whipped around as a familiar man, donning a solid green tunic held in place over tight khakis with a white sash and a green domino mask not even remotely disguising familiar eyes, strode in and past Gojyo, carrying a brown paper bag. “Lady Mercy asked me to bring refreshments.” 

Gojyo gaped as his savior stopped in front of him and set down a bottle of water, an apple, and a napkin. He smiled, too kindly, fully genuinely, then passed Gojyo by. Sanzo grimaced as the villain passed through the room to stunned stares and gaping mouths.

“You brought apples? Why couldn't you just get donuts and coffee like a normal person?”

“Goodness, Wild Monk.” The villain chuckled as he finished passing out snacks and went to stand between Lady Mercy and Sanzo, hands folded politely in front of his waist. “I thought we were meant to be role models.”

“Whatever.” Sanzo rolled his eyes, and gestured. “Ladies, gentlemen, Goku, this is Cho Hakkai. Hero identity, Grassknot. He will be our fourth as of today. There are dossiers on the table, and you can ask him questions after we review his powers.” He pursed his lips, glaring from eye to eye again. “Though I trust a demonstration will not be necessary.”

Gojyo had no snappy retort. Looking at Gonou – no, Hakkai made him feel a lot of feelings, and none of them were remotely close to 'fine.'

He barely heard any of what was said in the meeting, but as he was leaving, he couldn't not hear his name being called. “Gojyo?” Hakkai had followed him to the door, a hand extended but not quite reaching him as Gojyo tried to make his escape. Gojyo swallowed hard, looking Hakkai up and down. Hakkai, however, looked him straight on, curiosity barely masking some sort of determination. “Empathy, is it?”

Gojyo swore, and shook his head. “We can't have this conversation here. Come on, my quarters.”

Gojyo lived on the Aspect campus, not caring enough to get a flat of his own elsewhere (it wasn't like he could just fly over the city, and with the constant heists and disasters going down, commuting was a bitch), and Hakkai followed him to the door. Gojyo held it open for him and slammed it shut behind them. Hakkai immediately pivoted back towards him. “You're an empath. That's your holdback, isn't it?”

“You guessed?” Gojyo grimaced, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Or did Sanzo tell you?”

“I figured it out, since it is mutual.” Hakkai put a hand over his heart. “I've felt your emotions, too. Your anger at me. Your frustration. Your sorrow.”

“Fuck.” Gojyo scraped his hair back. No point in lying, since Hakkai would likely already know. “Yeah, see, turns out that between saving each other's lives and sharing a bottle of wine, we synced really well.” 

“I see. So that's why you were sent to interrogate me.” Hakkai paced between Gojyo's couch and cramped coffee table, numbering things off on his fingers. “You can tell when someone is lying, you can likely manipulate them to sympathize with you and confess, and you can convince them to give you information they would otherwise resist sharing--” 

“That's why I'm the guy who talks to the villains we arrest, yeah.” Gojyo crossed his arms. “But I wanted to talk to you. That probably didn't help me either.” He rubbed his brow. “It's... it's the flow of emotions between people, like water. As much as I flow through to someone, they flow back to me.”

“I see.” Hakkai bit his lip. “Then, I'm--”

“Don't apologize, dammit.” Gojyo smiled wryly. “You're alive, ain'cha? I thought I was gonna feel you freeze. Usually, I can lose myself in a woman or three, someone fully indulging me and my emotions, and my connection with someone goes away, but I didn't want to this time.” 

“Why not?” 

Gojyo shivered under Hakkai's scrutiny, because God, he looked so gentle, standing there and smiling as if he already knew. Maybe he did, because he could feel them syncing again, their thoughts, their minds. Gojyo knew too much about him, the black, hungry vengeance that had lived in this man's bones, that powerful desire, but at the same time, he knew himself and the empty spaces left in his life, the rejection, the need, all doubled back on him, and Hakkai surely knew too because he'd felt Gojyo the same as Gojyo had felt him.

“I liked you,” Gojyo muttered, as honest as if he'd been drinking again. “When I found out why you did what you did... fuck, I wouldn't'a had the guts. You did what you thought you had to, and I likely would'a just taken it, ignored it, and tried to just look out for number one.”

“I disagree, but I understand.” Hakkai tapped his fingers on his thighs. “It seems we will be working together now. Will this connection between us be a problem?” Hakkai pulled a hand up towards his chest. “I don't want it to be.”

Gojyo thought for a moment, then put on a brave grin. “I won't let it be.” He stepped towards Hakkai. “I think we could be a pretty good team, y'know? You and your vines, and me with the water shield and blades, we could have each other's backs.”

“I like the sound of that.” Hakkai's eyes were bright and alive, and Gojyo liked that very much himself. “But perhaps you'll be interested to know that during my extended debriefing, I've discovered some extensions of my energy manipulation. I believe we'll be on our first mission together, and I eagerly anticipate demonstrating for you.” 

Together. Gojyo liked the sound of that. “I'm looking forward to that, too.” He could feel Hakkai's happiness as if it were his own, and in a way it was.

He knew it wasn't the wine talking, because talking to Hakkai felt so right, so natural. Whether it was the flow between them or just a bond like binding vines, this was reality. Gojyo was ready for something that honest.


End file.
